GM Mike

  There’s this Star Trek: The Next Generation episode called The Inner Light . Even if you’re not a Trekkie, hear me out. Captain Picard gets zapped by a mysterious space probe (as one does), passes out for a few minutes, and wakes up living someone else’s life on a peaceful planet. New name, new wife, new everything. He spends decades there—grows old, learns to play the flute, raises a family. And then, poof. Back to the Enterprise. The planet’s gone. The people are gone. The whole thing was a memory implant—this extinct civilization’s way of being remembered. But here’s the thing: it changed him. That episode came to mind the other day, and I couldn’t stop thinking—maybe we’re all having little Inner Light moments when we play TTRPGs. The Lives We Roll Into I’ve played a lot of characters. Some were dumb. Some were funny. Some were powerful. Some were disasters. And a few… a few left a mark. No, they’re not “real.” I get that. They don’t go to work or eat cereal. But th...

Art therapy teaches us something simple but powerful: creating helps. Drawing, painting, writing—whatever the medium, it lets you express things you might not know how to say out loud. It helps you understand your feelings, reduce stress, and work through your thoughts. You don’t have to be a professional or even "good at it"—you just have to do it. Now, look at roleplaying games. You create a character—not just rolling stats, but imagining who they are, where they come from, what they want, what they regret. Sometimes you pour in little pieces of yourself without realizing it. Sometimes you build someone completely different from you—someone you want to understand or become. That process alone already touches on identity, self-reflection, even healing. Then you build a world. It might be a creepy dungeon, a haunted kingdom, or a peaceful forest where mushrooms talk—but that’s storytelling. That’s symbolism. You’re creating a place where ideas and feelings live. It’s not alwa...

  It started with a solo game. I wanted to try an evil adventuring party—not something super grim or edgy, more like something dark but fun. A little twisted, but with some charm too. So I created the characters, and then, like always, I drew them. I'm constantly drawing characters and coming up with story ideas. That’s just how my brain works, I guess. But as I started playing through the opening scenes, I began to feel like there was more here. Something worth keeping. Something I might want to turn into a proper story. That’s how Red Noir Quest began.   Drawing has always been my thing. It helps me relax. It’s like entering a flow state, like reaching into a dream. But it’s not always about starting with a drawing. Sometimes it begins with a scene idea or a bit of dialogue. Sometimes with a map. Writing, drawing, solo games—they all talk to each other. I bounce between them all the time, and they feed each other.   What I love about solo roleplay is the freedom. T...